Design and manufacturing of a quad tilt rotor unmanned air vehicle

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2014
Kahvecioğlu, Ahmet Caner
This thesis presents the design and manufacturing process of a mini class quad tilt rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV). An optimal design procedure is conducted to satisfy a set of pre-determined requirements, which ensure a competitive aircraft platform performing primarily intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in UAV market. The aircraft has four electric motors with tilting capability in one axis, which gives it the opportunity to combine the vertical take-off and landing capabilities with long endurance and good maximum cruise speed. In addition, as a result of the physical concept and the modular design of the aircraft, wing and tail parts of the aircraft can be demounted, so that the aircraft is converted to a highly maneuverable quad-rotor, which has a longer hovering time capacity than the full aircraft and is more appropriate for missions requiring stealth. The thesis includes the construction of a mathematical model which calculates all of the weight estimation parameters and geometrical and performance outputs; generation of different design cases using this mathematical model and the procedure for an optimal design choice; construction of the outer geometry and inner structure vi of the aircraft; manufacturing of the molds and the composite skins of the aircraft; and assemblage of the aircraft. Outputs of the mathematical model are compared with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions to justify the analytical calculations. Besides, static loading tests are conducted to examine the structural design of the airframe. The main objective of the study is to give an idea about the feasibility of developing a new concept of a mini class UAV.

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Citation Formats
A. C. Kahvecioğlu, “Design and manufacturing of a quad tilt rotor unmanned air vehicle,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2014.